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A design engineer is an engineer whose job is to produce a detailed design from a conceptual design, thereby bringing the real from the abstract on a day-to-day basis.
The output of a design engineer is usually a set of drawings and specifications that should produce a working product with very little final adjustment needed. If significant rework is required in the construction, startup, or manufacturing phase, the design engineer did not do an acceptable job. This ability to foresee potential problems is a key skill for a design engineer. Flaws in the conceptual design that go uncaught by the design engineer or others will not surface until production or construction, so there is a potential for a design engineer to become a scapegoat for those problems. A design engineer would usually work on a newer and less proven design than a designer, since once the engineering principles are proven to be correct in a similar design, further engineering knowledge and skill is not generally needed to produce similar designs.
Combining design and engineering into a single discipline, though arguably rare, is perhaps a lost praxis due to increasing division of work and specialization that is arguably necessary due to the increased complexity of technology in the present-day military-industrial complex model.
However, current (1990s and on) trends in the engineering of complex systems are largely towards re-integration of work processes. For example, the notions of Integrated Product Teams and Concurrent Engineering place Design firmly within the scope of a wider engineering activity.
Design Science
One notable Design Science 'guru' is Professor Eder from the Royal Military College of Canada who has published 'Engineering Design' Singapore. Mc Graw- Hill, 1991.Research is also performed in this area at the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen,Czech Republic * mostly under the direction of Professor Stanislav Hosnedl and post-graduate researchers including Ctibor Stadler, in the specific field of applied engineering design science.
Prototyping and Modeling
Prototyping and modeling are major functions in the design process. They are used in combination with testing, including usability testing, in an iterative development of a design.
See also
"Design engineer"